Did you see Wootbot's email about BOCs AND the Woot-off next week?

Sep 10, 2012 4:41 PM

Per wootboot, there will be 2 'different' kinds of Bocs this week - The Borg and The Mystery Pieces on FB.

Next week: "The Search for Crapbeard's Treasure! On Tuesday, Sept. 18, and Wednesday, Sept. 19, we'll run a Woot-Off with a very special difference". "Clues sprinkled throughout the Woot-Off will lead you to a hidden cache of lost pirate loot. Or something. That's about all we can tell you right now without angering Crapbeard's ghost. And none of us wants that. He's really disgusting when he's angry."

Guess the quest for BOCs has changed permanently. I'm sad. But, it IS nice to know when the woot-off is scheduled.

Yes, I saw that and I agree, it is nice to know when the woot-off will be, though unfortunately I will be in board meetings all Tuesday morning. But I am really sad about the FB situation. I am not on FB and I used to be able to see woot's FB site at work without having to be logged in to FB, but I no longer can see it, FB is requesting that I log in, and I really don't want to create a FB account. :(

@gmwhit and @gmwhit: I'm with you both. As I've said before, I don't do any of the social media, so any game or challenge that involves them leaves me out. I can deal with that, especially given the many changes here in the last few months; the trend to be, well, trendy is pretty tsunami-like and it's something in which I choose not to participate. During the last two I was very much aware that I was considerably less interested in the entire thing -- deals, BOCs, all of it. Perhaps I've outgrown it, or perhaps I've just wearied of the chase, which has moved to a playing field far away from me. Regardless. the prospect of a woot-off elicits little more than a tepid "Oh, that's nice," from me now.

@gatzby: Thank you. Glad to hear that the 'old faithfuls' are not being completely forgotten. Just a word: You do know it's not just the bocs going elsewhere...many things are making me feel left out. Dare I bring up the FAQs again? Probably not a good time. Disregard that, please. (I do hope you don't forget it completely though.) /whine...else the plain clothed cop will send me cheese.

@gmwhit: I am 100% on the same page as this comment of yours. I will also add that while I understand their craving for new customers, it seems like the longtime ones(who don't do social media) are being left out. It seems to be "adapt or don't". I honestly don't care deeply about the BOC, but you are right: it belongs here. It does look like there will be a shot at one for us non-twitbookers this time.

@neuropsychosocial: Yeah, it's a bummer, but to do cool things, we have to meet some legal standards, which includes publishing the winner's name for a given amount of time. (I'm not sure how long, off the top of my head.)

I just want to second that we're not forgetting the on-site community and have some fun stuff planned there too. We're also happen to take suggestions. User feedback is one of our most value points of data, yo.

@gmwhit: popular opinion is that a large Facebook fanbase is a small reflection of your whole fanbase. Though I think Woot as a whole does not play by any popular marketing norms, it has been noticed that we have a relatively small presence on the social media juggernaut compared to our big brothers over here. It's something we're ramping up, but we're not going to stop doing things on our site, it's just been a good learning experience (legally and otherwise) to see how to best run these types of things. As our experience grows with our available budget and whatnot, I'm sure we'll have a wider opportunity for anyone who does want to participate.

@neuropsychosocial: oh crud, real name. I'm so sorry, this is a legal thing- apparently any lotteries have to also result in the winner's name being published, in our case we'll be putting it on the forum post over there.

@carl669: I think I understand your explanation. I also think that woot gains new customers through word of mouth. Not via the social arena. They have (had?) a large customer base of fervent fans. On woot.

When they decided to place the sacred, sought after bocs on social sites, they're saying to me - Hey, you were our 1st thought for boc rewards, now you're not. Join the social club to be highly regarded again. That's one of the reasons I feel disenfranchised.

Perhaps they gain 100's/1,000's of new customers. Are those customers going to be loyal ones? And return to woot? Maybe. Or not. Lots of customers who buy 1 or 2 things a year..is that really what they want? Anyway, in doing this, I believe they're losing those who were on this site daily, buying, & participating in the community.

It's just painful for me to see this transition. From what I perceived as a friendly site w/GOOD deals to a site similar to any other on the web. IMO, bocs belong on woot. Period.

@gmwhit: Thank you. I don't think I've said anything anyone else hasn't said before, for the most part And, I don't think adq's comment was appropriate. It actually seems that employees take more liberty to be unprofessional, as of late.

And yes, it's frustration. They give BoC's to people who are on social networks and photo sites but not to those of us on their actual webiste. Then, the one time I see there is something on a social network, I'm there.. waiting.. reloading, for over 4 hours (with working interspersed) to then be told i need to email somewhere else. That is frustrating, and I think.. a terrible idea.

@lichme: In defense of @kmeltzer, most of what he said, I am in agreement with. (<---incorrect ending to a sentence. Bad gmwhit!! ) And have voiced the same concerns. I think his jab at adq was a bit harsh, and probably done out of frustration.

for the people complaining about woot using social media sites, let me explain why i think they do this.

woot is a business. the more customers they have, the more business they do. this is good.

facebook and other social media sites have more users than woot. let's use facebook as an example. a wooter sees a post about a POC or BOC or whatever. they click 'like'. a friend of that person, who doesn't know about woot, sees their friend has liked something and decides to check it out. that friend decides to buy from woot. woot gains a customer.

if woot were to limit their posts only to woot forums, that potential customer will never know woot even exists. just my 1/50th of a dollar.

tl;dr - using social media may gain customers for woot. just my 2 cents.

Though I am very disappointed in woot whoring themselves out on social media, this doesn't necessarily mean there won't be a normal BOC in the woot off itself, as well, right?
It would just be a surprise like the always used to be :)
I could just be hopelessly optimistic, though.

@gmwhit: I think I said something similar last time. We are ON woot sites, right now. Why the h-e-doublehockeysticks would you even want us to leave here and go to Twinterbook? So we can overload their servers instead? Would you rather we do the "social media" thing, or do you want us HERE, buying your stuff?

With the power of the entire AWS group at your disposal, I don't see why woot still crashes during WOBOCs.

@agingdragqueen: Can I? Can I really???? Thanks for the tip and the unneeded sarcasm to a daily user and a customer. Very unhelpful.

How about you don't say there is going to be crap on there, but you actually don't do ANYTHING crap-wise for hours and hours. Then, you make people do YET ANOTHER thing (email) to be entered to get a PIECE of crap, not even a BAG of it.

Horrible idea.

You make people jump through hoops to get things, when you make those of us who are actually on the website get nothing. Add that to the increasingly boring forums, and increasingly expensive items.

The real social network of Woot are these forums, and those of us who are here, daily, making the website itself interesting. But, you reward people on Facebook and Twitter. Think about it.

Another approach: Wouldn't it be more beneficial to woot to have everyone hang out ON woot's sites? So many people have stated their displeasure w/the FB/Twit(sic) approach. I don't follow their logic. But then, I don't have to, eh? ;-) As always - their sites; their choices, rules, etc.

@carl669: I was on vacation last week and there were different things done to the network here while I was gone, I don't think it's a FB problem, I think it's a work problem. Before I left I could see it fine, but now I can't see any FB page, I tried going to other companies and they are not working either.

edit: Our IT guy likes beef jerky, maybe I can bribe him with some to get me access :)

Yes, I saw that and I agree, it is nice to know when the woot-off will be, though unfortunately I will be in board meetings all Tuesday morning. But I am really sad about the FB situation. I am not on FB and I used to be able to see woot's FB site at work without having to be logged in to FB, but I no longer can see it, FB is requesting that I log in, and I really don't want to create a FB account. :(

Woot.com is operated by Woot Services LLC.
Products on Woot.com are sold by Woot, Inc., other than items on Wine.Woot which are sold by the seller specified on the product detail page.
Product narratives are for entertainment purposes and frequently employ
literary point of view;
the narratives do not express Woot's editorial opinion.
Aside from literary abuse, your use of this site also subjects you to Woot's
terms of use
and
privacy policy.
Woot may designate a user comment as a Quality Post, but that doesn't mean we agree with or guarantee anything said or linked to in that post.

Not a farewell, just a forced redirect.

It's true, Local.Woot is no longer, but please don't despair.

Never-ending savings are still to be found on Deals.Woot each and every day, so come on in. Don't think of it as a time for tears. Think of it as a way to bring us all closer together under one roof.

Sorry

This is only for people who have bought woots

We restrict voting to users who have purchased something from one of the other Woot stores. It's not just because we want your money (which we do) - it's the best way to be sure all the votes are coming from real people and not spam-bots or phony accounts. The best way we can think of, anyway. For now.

You can always get voting rights by buying something from one of Woot's other sites:

Purchases through Deals.Woot don't count, because in that case you're not buying anything from us. And we don't have your account information for those purchases.

If you think you've bought something from Woot before and still can't vote, make sure you're logged in with the same account you used to buy from us.

Geez, why so negative?

You have to vote up more before you can vote down.

Don't get us wrong. Negativity has its place. And downvotes are just as essential as upvotes when it comes to making Deals.Woot a useful place to find deals.

But when your votes lean so heavily toward the dark side, we have to wonder. Go vote up a few things. Accentuate the positive for a little while. It'll do you some good, and it'll do the site some good, too. Then you can get back to dealing out the smackdowns, OK?

Too late, we all heard you!

Hmm... you're wanting to take your vote back?

Well, that's a bit tricky. See, we do a lot of stuff with your vote, using it to work out the popularity of what you voted for, compare that to all the other things voted on, tally up our leaderboard, work out your reputation. Someday we'll do a little cartoon showing just how hard your vote is working.

Anyway, taking votes back messes all that up, so we give you five minutes, in case you just mis-clicked. After that we've got to say no take-backs. Luckily, votes are free, so feel free to throw them around left and right wherever you see fit.